Kendo information from Geoff

Grading examinations for older kendoka

Reflecting on the Brussels grading, I am reminded that the higher your age, the more difficult it becomes to pass. In my experience, this is not just true for Europe, but applies everywhere including the kodansha grading examinations in Japan.
Now I don’t for a moment think that kendo is ageist. We are privileged to be able to participate at ages that would have exceeded the retirement points in many other sports. Nor when looking at the array of venerable sensei on some grading panels do I think there is any bias against senior candidates. It is however an irrefutable truth that it becomes more difficult to force your body to do good kendo as you reach your 50s and 60s.
Knees and ankles wear out, particularly after years of training on hard floors. Forward motion becomes more difficult and some older kenshi start to rely more on upper-body strength to hit the target. Unfortunately this is not the way forward.
I was fortunate to receive some concerted coaching from Chiba sensei when in my mid 50s that made me realise that I had to adapt my kendo to my age. The key points were that you needed to find your own distance, keep your footwork light, but still forward, and use your opponents’ movement to your advantage. Rather than making your attacks bigger and harder, they should be smaller and lighter.
The more you advance in grade the more important seme becomes. This does not mean that you should constantly push in to take shikake waza, but you should also use hiki-dasu to make your opponent move towards you so that you can execute debana and oji-waza. The logic is that when your opponent steps towards you, you need only take half a step to reach the target. And it’s not always necessary to make fumikomi. A sliding step forward can be sufficient if you have good ki-ken-tai-itchi. Zanshin is of course important, but you do not need to gallop across the dojo to make your point. Two or three steps through with good posture and kamae, before turning to re-engage should be enough.
Kizeme is a necessity. Mochida sensei’s often quoted truth that when your body becomes frail you have to rely on “indomitable spirit” to subdue your opponent is key. You should use your mental strength to make the opponent move in a direction and timing where you can hit him. One of my other favourite quotes on this subject is from Kikuchi Koichi sensei who said “as I become older I move more slowly, but I also see my opponent’s movement more slowly”.

I did try to pass for my yondan in Amsterdam 2012, but unlucky with my age 66 years, i have always younger opponents. But i feel good and practice kendo 22 years without injuries. I hope this year after hard training to have more luck.

Thank you. I will be 59 this year and will try to keep this in mind, especially after a very late start into Kendo.
Visiting sensei always tell me it is time to start “slowing down” and wait a little more rather than going for more. Not having lived enough of a kendo active life for early development we may tend to “expedite” the experience.

Excellent advice Sensei but i have to agree with Frank that it’s very difficult to ‘Slow down’ once the adrenalin starts to flow. I’m 55 in august and I’ve been practicing kendo for around 6 years now yet every time I train there is something new to learn. that’s what i love about kendo.

I found this article to be humbling and inspiring. At 52 (basically a teenager among some of you) I will be testing for Ni Dan this weekend. There are times after practice were I wonder if I should be doing this, but Steve T. just showed me why not to quit.
Thank you Salmon sensei for all the instructive articles.

I’m quite young (27 years old) but I began to really realize that efficient technique is way better than trying to be fast. I saw some videos of my fights and realize that my speed was very similar to those of the top competitors here in Brazil – I counted the frames of the strikes. The real difference is in the technique. I used to lift high and stop the shinai in the top before start the downward movement and jump in a upward and forward motion. So my movement was fast but obvious. Now I’m working on tenouchi, taisabaki and ashisabaki without lift the right foot and leaning the body in a forward motion.

That is my experience.

Geoff, I really like to read a post about how to fight jodan and nitto.

Where to start! Hiki-dasu means to pull your opponent in. To make him commit himself to an attack when you are ready for him. So a good example would be to slightly move the tip of you shinai up to his left eye by squeezing the tsuka with the little finger of your right hand. He then sees an opening for men and thinks he is taking the advantage. If you are ready with your feet and balance in the right place you can take a small step forward as he starts to move and hit his kote, or if his movement is more advanced, block and return his strike with kaeshi dou. I hope that this makes sense.

Very nice article as always
I am 69 and find that on the last examination ( In Berlin, ) I was superior to my opponents, but made some stupid moves that were absolutely unnecessary.
However, sometimes it happens to me to face some Japanese 20 years old yondan, to see them before and find that they are fast as hell, but notice that facing me, they slow down ( no, it is not because I am pathetic).
The old European fencing manuals warn that fencing consist of “Time” “Distance” and “mode” ( technique). Speed and strenght are not considered, and Kendo is fencing